The football goalkeeper: a vision from motor praxiology

Abstract

The football goalkeeper is characterized by a series of peculiarities in relation to the other players, as provided in the rules. As consequence, he is often seen in a fragmented way from the context of the match, and his training process takes place in a very particular way in relation to the rest of the team, focused on the repetition and improvement of technical gestures. In order to counter this conception, the present research analyzes the goalkeeper's performance from the internal logic of football, proposing implications for his training process. This structuring is carried out based on a theoretical research, using the tools of the Motor Praxeology, which points out the participation of the goalkeeper in the communicational aspects of the game as well as the rest of the participants. In this regard, the motor actions of the goalkeeper only make sense as of the demands that the game presents, needing to be developed based on the specificity of the situations that emerge in football and the need of reading and adaptation of the goalkeeper in each moment of the match, in the context of interaction among teammates and opponents. The opposing element gains importance in the participation of the goalkeeper in the match, and should be central to the training process as it provides the aspects of unpredictability present in the match.